


Arrivals

by Jen425



Series: You Reap What You Sow (And You Don't Even Know) [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: ...Kinda, Ahsoka Tano Needs a Hug, Ahsoka Tano-centric, Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Anakin Skywalker Has Issues, Anakin Skywalker Needs a Hug, Anakin Skywalker knows he has issues, Anakin Skywalker: Infinite Pain, Anakin and Padme don’t think that they're subtle, Anakin is a mess, Complicated Relationships, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dimension Travel, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Non graphic depictions of violence, Obi-Wan is just... so confused, Obi-Wan wants none of this, Oh, Platonic Cuddling, Poor Ahsoka, Poor Anakin, Sith Ahsoka, Time Travel, Visions and Nightmares, and he really doesn’t want to know about a future without Anakin, but not really, i don’t know, kind of, maybe graphic, the source of, this is also kind of a play on, yeah - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-03-07 22:23:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 12,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13444641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425
Summary: A long time ago, in a Galaxy even farther, farther away, It was Ahsoka Tano who fell to the Dark Side, Anakin Skywalker who watched over the son of his Fallen former Padawan, and Finn Tano who redeemed Darth Nidoa.But, now, that Galaxy's Anakin and Ahsoka find themselves in a much more familiar Galaxy, in the bodies that they had during their Clone Wars...And only a year after this Galaxy's had begun.(To be fair, things do seem to be going at a much quicker pace, in this world.)(Originally titled "You Reap What You Sow".)





	1. Prologue - Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> I did it. I decided to write two stories at once.
> 
> Well, at least this one's different.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, and welcome to my story. Please enjoy my rendition of the best moment in the entire Prequel Trilogy, and a very deep Conversation with cuddles.

_Anakin jumped to the edge of the steep slope, then, right where it softened almost flat. He saw Ahsoka below him, on the floating platform. He recognized this moment. It wasn't the same slope, and he was on the opposite side of it, but he recognized this this moment. He prayed he was wrong._

_"It's over, Ahsoka," he said, praying for her to listen, "I have the high ground."_

  
  
_Ahsoka glared up at him from the platform, Sith-yellow eyes glowing._

  
  
_"Don't underestimate my power."_

  
  
_No._

  
  
_"Don't do it, Ahsoka," he begged her._

  
  
_Ahsoka ignored him, however, and jumped. Anakin lifted his saber and swung, the movement almost instinctual. She tumbled down the hill, groaning—no,_ growling _in pain._

 

He _had done this._

  
  
_He was supposed to be the Chosen One, the one destined to destroy the Sith, and bring balance. Instead, here he stood, the Force still screaming at the death of so many Jedi, immersed in the Dark Side just like his bright former Padawan. All that was left, it seems, was the Darkness._

  
  
_Below him, Ahsoka was desperately clawing her way forwards from the flat area right near the Lava river, the platform they had been fighting on having long floated away. This was all his fault._

  
  
_"You're a Jedi!" He cried, ignoring the tears filling his eyes, "It's our job to destroy the Sith. How could you do this?!"_

  
  
_"I hate you!" Ahsoka screamed, and Anakin felt another piece of his heart break away._

  
  
_"You were my sister, Ahsoka," he said, "I loved you."_

  
  
_He turned around, bending down to grab Ahsoka's lightsaber from where it lay near his feet, and walked away. No one was there to see the tears in his eyes as he walked away, ignoring the girl who was once his sister's screams of agony, the echoes of her pain sent along their near-shattered bond._

_He had felt that pain himself, once, in a dream._

_He doesn’t look back…_

 

“Master!” someone cried, “Please, wake up!”

 

Anakin bolted awake, and he suddenly found arms pulled around him as he started to cry. The arms of his Padawan, of Ahsoka. _His_ Ahsoka. The one that he had trained and fought with and fought against and been killed by. The one who had done the impossible for the sake of her son.

 

In the end, she had done well…

 

And he had failed her, completely.

 

It was so hard, looking at this new timeline’s Ahsoka, a reminder of every loved one that he had failed all wrapped up into a single, fifteen-year-old body.

 

And now, once again, his thoughts ran through his failures as he cried, cried like he never had in his first life, even in twenty years on the worst planet in the Galaxy.

 

Obi-Wan, Padme, Leia, Ben, _Ahsoka…_

 

He had failed them all.

 

And so, in this moment, he cried. He cried for every failure he’d had, for every loved one that he lost… he cried for the woman holding him, despite the fact that she had every right to hate him. This was the first time that he had had The Dream since they had been sent here as a second chance…

 

And it was so much harder to bear when the first face that he saw upon waking was the woman that he had left to die.

 

Eventually, however, his tears did cease, and he detangled himself from his former student.

 

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked, and he hesitantly nodded his head.

 

“We can’t risk this chance being spoiled by an unstable ally,” he said. Ahsoka shook her head.

 

“No,” she said, “Do you _want_ to talk about it. I know you, Anakin, and I’ve never seen you crying in your sleep… or with anything getting through your shields that you don’t want to.”

 

Anakin sighed, stretching his arms and marveling at the feeling of a younger body and a working prosthetic.

 

“Ahsoka,” he said quietly, forcing himself to talk louder than a whisper, “We’ve fought in hundreds of lightsaber duels, in every possible location in the Galaxy. Did you never find it strange that I thought the high ground would be the deciding factor on…”

 

He trailed off. Ahsoka, of course, knew exactly what he meant.

 

“I always assumed you thought that the Dark Side had made me out of my mind and stupid, which, by the way, it had,” she says, “I don’t know how the Jedi don’t know about this, but Falling will literally make you go insane for a couple of months.”

 

Interesting information. Anakin filed it away for later. If he hesitated for too long then he’d never finish his story.

 

“Well,” he said with a shaky laugh, “That explains a lot… but, no, that’s not why I… when I was nineteen, I…”

 

Oh _Force_ this was hard to do. Ahsoka put her hand on his shoulder, and Anakin forced himself to continue.

 

“I… My mother. She died. In my arms. I… I killed them all! Men, women, and children, I slaughtered my mother’s killers like the animals that they were, I still… I don’t _regret_ it!”

 

Ahsoka let out a sharp gasp. Anakin ploughed ahead.

 

“I… I had a vision, my future if I continued down this path. It was… I was _in_ my future self’s body. I felt the pain of rolling down the hill, of catching fire. I heard Obi-Wan’s thoughts. He couldn’t kill me because he loved me, but he wouldn’t save me because, deep inside him, he wanted revenge. I’d _seen_ that, _felt_ it, and still left you… I’m so sorry.”

 

At some point, he’d fully turned away, he’d only ever repeated this conversation twice before, and both times had been before he’d even met Ahsoka. It was so much harder, now that the memories could merge in his head from either side. It _hurt_ like a physical wound.

 

Ahsoka sighed, and pulled Anakin to face her.

 

“My Fall had almost _nothing_ to do with you,” she said, and it didn’t go unnoticed by Anakin that she didn’t say that he was completely not responsible, “And, in the end, it my choices that landed me in that suit. We’d both been taught all our lives that it was impossible to return from the Dark Side, so what were you supposed to do, huh? Save the crazy Sith who’d killed younglings without remorse and tried to kill her husband? Kill someone that you loved when practically everything else was already gone?” she laughs, “Like I said, Master. I _know_ you. These were not options for you, no matter how hard you try to be the perfect Chosen One for the Jedi.”

 

Anakin scoffed.

 

“Fat lot of good _that_ did us.”

 

Ahsoka just smiled.

 

“That’s what our second chance here is _for_ ,” she reminded him, “We can keep angry you from Falling, keep mini-me from leaving the Order, keep Ben— _Obi-Wan_ from _ever_ telling the other you what you said to me… the Force didn’t send us here just to do the same thing all over again.”

 

“How are you so _calm_?” Anakin asked in a broken voice. Ahsoka laughed again.

 

“I already had my breakdown,” she said, “Remember? When I saw the darker of the two timelines that ours would lead to?”

 

Oh… yes, he remembered that.

 

“The Dark didn’t triumph, even then.”

 

“But the last of my clan had Fallen and sides with the Dark. He died.”

 

Anakin sighed.

 

“Ahsoka…”

 

She shook her head.

 

“Later, Skyguy,” she said, “We’ve got to talk to the Council tomorrow, I’m tired, and my quota for serious and deep conversation is completely filled.”

 

Anakin smiled, softly.

 

“Okay.”

 

She made no move to get up, so Anakin layed back down, completely unsurprised when, only moments later, she had curled up against his chest, on top of the covers, of course, because togruta can’t stand them, but still close to him. He put his arm over her, and tucked his chin into the dip between her montrails.

 

“I forgive you,” she whispered softly, “And I’ll keep telling you that until you believe that you deserve it.”

 

Anakin smiled.

 

“I know,” he said, “Goodnight, Snips.”

 

(It won’t dawn on him until later, but that was the first time that he had called her Snips since before her Fall. He never forgets this moment until long-past his second death.

 

This was the moment that his hope had been restored.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to clear this up before anyone asks, but “We can [...] keep Ben— Obi-Wan from ever telling the other you what you said to me" I'm referencing the Infinite Sadness quote, which, in the AU these characters are from, goes some thing like this:
> 
> \"And you, Master?" Ahsoka had asked, "What does your heart tell you that you are meant for?"
> 
> And Anakin had smiled, even as a wave of pain filled him at the echo of his mother's words.
> 
> "Pain," he had said, "Infinite Pain."\
> 
> And, well, I've had so many versions of this fic floating around in my head, iPad, Computer, and Google Drive for so long by now that, eventually, this quote turned into a general Anakin Skywalker headcannon for me.


	2. Arrival

Although they hadn’t been at all sure of where they were going to end up, a battle was definitely one of them. Still, it took them a moment to get their bearings.

 

Luckily, they was on Felucia, and you’d have to be blind not to recognize Felucia during the Clone Wars.

 

(There was a joke between the semi-brainwashed clones of the Empire was that there was always the Clone Wars on Felucia, which she had pretended not to know about. Some faulty programming had had the Separatists droid army fight unbelievably hard to hold the minor planet, and blocked their ability to comprehend the end of the Clone Wars. The final bits of the droid army had even held out to after the destruction of the first Death Star.)

 

So, as one, they lit the new sabers that the Force had given them, and joined the fray, white and gold beams of light cutting down every droid in their path and blocking every blast coming towards them, as perfect a team as they had been when their mind matched their current physical ages.

 

They win.

 

(Of course they do.)

 

They met the Jedi in charge after the battle, and Ahsoka nearly stumbled from the wave of grief that Anakin let free across their bond.

 

_ “Ben,” _ he said in their bond,  _ “This is Ben’s universe.” _

 

Ahsoka turned her head to him.

 

_ “Are you sure?” _ She asked, and Anakin nodded.

 

_ “His Force Signature has the exact same…  _ accent _ ,”  _ he explained, but she was still confused.

 

_ “Accent?” _ she asked, confused.

 

Anakin shrugged.

 

_ “Like an undercurrent,”  _ he said,  _ “It’s the same as Ben and...  _ Luke _.” _

 

He said the name like a curse and, honesty, she couldn’t blame him. She may have been three when her parents had thought they gave her to the Jedi, and six when she joined, but togruta were actually a step above humans as far as socialness went, and Leia had been her daughter in spirit just as much as her Padawan had been her Master’s daughter by blood.

 

She wondered how her younger self hadn’t seen Anakin’s pain. Then again, she really hadn’t been looking.

 

But, now that she was looking…

 

_ “I see it now,”  _ she said,  _ “I wonder how we missed it.” _

 

Anakin laughed, but it was a hollow version of the one that she remembered. Hers probably wasn’t much better, come to think of it. (Despite having been returned to this form over a year previous, she had yet to fully acclimate to it. She could see and hear and taste and smell and talk and laugh and cry and  _ feel _ , finally feel something other than pain and the scars across her body that, somehow, had never fully healed.)

 

_ “We missed a lot of things, Ahsoka.”  _ he said, and Obi-Wan finally seemed to get very annoyed with them.

 

“It’s not very polite to have a conversation along a bond in public, you know.”

 

As one, Anakin and Ahsoka turned to face the alternate version of their former Master. Anakin, as usual, turned up the charm which, thankfully, had gotten a lot better since she was first made his Padawan. He bowed.

 

“I apologize, Master Kenobi,” he said, “My former Padawan and I were merely… attempting to understand our situation. You see, we should be dead, and, in our universe, the Clone Wars ended more than two decades ago.”

 

Obi-Wan still looked confused.

 

“I’m sorry?” he asked, “I don’t seem to understand. Are you Jedi?”

 

They turned to each other.

 

_ “You explain!” _

 

_ “Ahsoka, please.” _

 

_ “Hey, I did the planning for how this works; you were the one who figured out how to actually change things, rather than just helping it happen in a different way like Ben ended up doing.” _

 

Anakin sighed.

 

_ “Ahsoka…” _

 

Obi-Wan coughed, loudly. Anakin just sighed again.

 

“We were Jedi, once,” he said, “But I had a daughter and she had a husband and both of us were really,  _ really _ stupid.”

 

He frowned, shaking his head.

 

“Anyway, please allow us to introduce ourselves. My name is Anakin Skywalker, and this is my former Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, but you may call us Luke Starkiller and…” Anakin turned to her, obviously realizing that he didn’t know an alias that she answered to at all equal to the one that he had used while watching over Finn on Tatooine. (She very carefully didn’t think about the origin of his alias, about Ben Starkiller and Luke Lars and the crazy boy’s now prophetic speech.)

 

(She also tried to ignore the name that she had been using at the time. She wanted to be as far away from Darth Nidoa as she could be without simply forgetting.)

 

“Ashla Lawquane,” she said.

 

Anakin turned to her in surprise.

 

_ “Why…” _

 

Ahsoka smiled.

 

_ “Well, I can’t exactly call myself ‘Ashla Fett’, now, can I? I married Rex, Anakin, and if I can actually show that, here, then I will.” _

 

Anakin only sighed, shaking his head minutely.

 

Obi-Wan, of course, sighed even  _ more _ dramatically than Anakin and covered his face with his hand.

 

“I’m starting to get the feeling that I shouldn’t have asked,” he said, before turning around and gesturing for him to follow, “Come on back to camp with us, we can deal with  _ this _ ,” and here he gestured to them once again, “once we’re there.”

 

In an instant, they fell into step behind him, and Ahsoka would admit to find it strangely hilarious that it’d somehow become so ingrained in them that they fell into step with an Obi-Wan just like they’d used to, regardless of everything.

 

(She does wonder how Ben had died, in the end. He hadn’t been killed by herself and the Empire, after all, but she also distinctly remember that they hadn’t confirmed his death after Order 66… 

 

Another time. They had enough issues as it was, and it’s not like it would have shown up in casual conversation in the time after her death, so it was probably none of her business.)

  
  
  


“So,” Obi-Wan said when they are back in his tent at the camp, “Explain.”

 

Ahsoka turned to Anakin. For all her teasing, she  _ would _ step in if he couldn’t handle it. She hadn’t had the bond with Ben that Anakin and Leia had had, nor had she been Obi-Wan’s Padawan for more than a few months. This must be so much harder for him.

 

But Anakin smiled almost enough for it to seem real, and he began to explain.

 

“Well, we should probably start a the beginning,” he says, “Ahso- _ Ashla _ and I are from the future, well, your future, at least. Something… something terrible is coming, and, well, the Force decides to send you and my alternate self’s son to our universe. Then, following our deaths, your future self helped us figure out a way to help save at least one of our Galaxy’s.”

 

Obi-Wan choked.

 

“Anakin has a  _ son _ ?!” he asked in a tone of voice that, to Ahsoka, sounded absolutely hysterical, but, to someone not close to him would probably sound only mildly surprised. That was fair, though, he didn’t entirely know them, yet.

 

In their bond, Anakin growled.

 

_ “He’s not my son,” _ he said.

 

Out loud, however, he continued to appear calm.

 

“Yes,” he said, “But he wasn’t born until after both the death of my and his leaving the Order, so it wasn’t like he’d broken the code more than I used to.”

 

Obi-Wan looked stricken.

 

“How does he…” Obi-Wan asked before trailing off, that sad look still on his face.

 

“On second thought,” he said, “I don’t want to know. You’re obviously not just here for sightseeing, and I would much rather remain blissfully unaware of when Anakin might be lost to me.”

 

Ahsoka forced herself not to wince at the wording. Her Master, thankfully, was absolutely wonderful, sending warmth through the bond.

 

_ “I forgave you, Ahsoka, and so did Rex,”  _ he said,  _ “And I’ll keep telling you that until you believe you deserve it.” _

 

(His own eyes had hardened, but Ahsoka chose not to mention it. Anakin had always been horrible about taking care of himself, and she knew better than to try and force something out of him.)

 

Obi-Wan, who had obviously noticed their newest conversation, just sighed again.

 

“You’re worse than myself and Anakin,” he muttered, before saying louder, “Alright, I’m contacting your counterparts. And the Council… what exactly should I tell them?”

 

Ahsoka smiled, and it was almost real.

 

“Just tell them that you’ve met a pair of Starkillers,” she said, “Master Yoda will understand.”

 

Obi-Wan turned to leave, slowly.

 

“Right. I’ll do that.”

 

Then, he left.

 

Ahsoka collapsed back on the cot she was sitting on.

 

“Well,” she said sarcastically, “We’ve made it.”

 

Anakin groaned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still not entirely sure what I'm doing with this... The POV will generally swap between Anakin and Ahsoka, either these two or the native/cannon pair depending on what the scene necessitates. Don't ask about the names because I don't even know, but I've been trying to write ahead, and, well, one chapter of the two sets of Anakin and Ahsoka has already made me hate the words "alternate" and "counterpart". Luke and Ashla will still call themselves and each other Anakin and Ahsoka, of course, but Anakin and Ahsoka refer to their counterparts (you SEE) as Luke and Ashla.
> 
> Also, the "Ben" thing...
> 
> Well, let's just say that the original version of this story had a much larger portion taking place IN the AU Ashla and Luke are from, and my usual method of filling the gaps where characters should be, but nobody fits is dimension travel.
> 
> And the Leia thing...
> 
> I really love the idea of Ahsoka training Leia.
> 
> And the Luke thing...
> 
> I started this months ago. "It's time for the Jedi to end," Luke says in the TLJ trailer. "The Republic is failing, it's only a matter of time!" says Barriss in TCW, and, of course, Anakin is even more self-deprecating than Obi-Wan, so he pretty much uses the alias The-boy-that-tried-to-get-my-daughter-killed-for-a-crime-that-he-himself-commited-who-is-actually-the-son-of-my-alternate-evil-self The-version-of-my-dead-master-who-is-basically-me-and-also-from-the-afformentioned-universe-where-I-turn-evil-who-also-cut-off-evil-me's-remaining-limbs-and-left-evil-me-to-burn-just-like-I-did-to-my-own-Padawan.
> 
> ...I think that covers every bad decision that I made? Anyways...
> 
> Oh! Yes. I probably should have said this earlier. I suck at writing chronologically, so expect slow updates.


	3. Anakin

Anakin would admit to being a little bit surprised when he was awoken in the middle of the night by a call from his Master. Padme was off-planet at the moment, so he was alone in his and Obi-Wan’s shared apartment, trying to get some sleep before he was dragged off to pose for propaganda and then sent down into lower Coruscant to see if anything important was brewing in the underworld of Coruscant because he was one of maybe two hundred Jedi that could pass as _not_ a Jedi.

 

At least their stops on Coruscant were a proper break for his Padawan. The now-fifteen-year-old girl was a light in his life that had, over the course of the past four months, become just as dear to him as Obi-Wan or Padme. He loved Ahsoka like a daughter and a little sister all at once.

 

So, yes, he would admit to not having been on his A-game when Obi-Wan called him.

 

“Skywalker here,” he said groggily, sure that whatever came out of his comm next would make his “leave” either much better or much worse.

 

In the end, it was a strange mixture of both.

 

“Anakin,” his Master said, sounding surprisingly shaken, and Anakin one again cursed their bond’s inability to properly communicate over long distances, especially what with all of the shields he had always had to hold up to keep his friend from looking at all of the places in his mind that would disappoint his former Master, “I need to ask you something.”

 

Anakin shrugged, although they weren’t on holo.

 

“Sure, Master,” he said, “Is this the kind of thing that I need to grab my holo comm for?”

 

Obi-Wan sighed.

 

“That would be preferable, yes.”

 

Anakin nodded unconsciously.

 

“Right,” he said, “I’ll call you back in two minutes.”

 

He went, grabbed his holo comm, and discovered some of the strangest news that he would ever get in his life.

 

“So, let me get this straight,” he said, “You, _somehow_ , manage to get stuck in an alternate universe, and then your ghost sent that universe’s version of me and Snips here.”

 

Obi-Wan’s miniature form gave him the most tired look, and it echoed in the bond.

 

“I didn’t tell you the entire story yet, Anakin,” he said, “For I did not, apparently, come to that world alone…

 

“I came to their universe with your son, Anakin.”

 

Anakin spluttered.

 

“My _son_?” He asked.

 

Obi-Wan gave him a look.

 

“Do you truly believe yourselves to be subtle?” he asked. Anakin shot him an equally scathing expression.

 

“No,” he said, “I never thought that we were… but nobody has said anything, yet, and we’re both needed for this war. After, perhaps…”

 

Obi-Wan sighed.

 

“They told me that you had died,” he said, “I… Anakin, I must admit to caring for you more than a Jedi should, and, to learn that I may lose you so soon…”

 

Obi-Wan trailed off, then, but then he released his side of the bond, and, even from this far away, Anakin could still feel the unbelievable grief that Obi-Wan felt at even the thought.

 

And, so, he did the same, allowing Obi-Wan to see the confusing mass of anger and love that Anakin had always felt for his Master to be bared to the man.

 

And he smiled.

 

“I know,” he said before returning to the main issue on hand, “Do you want myself and Ahsoka to meet you? We can, if you want; I’d love an excuse not to deal with Temple Duty.”

 

Obi-Wan just shook his head.

 

“No,” he said, “You still have a week before your next deployment, and I’d hate to rob you of your break. Besides, we’ll meet again then, at least briefly. We can talk then. I… there is much that our travelers are not telling me, but I’m trying to keep them away from the Council. I’ve alerted the Council of their presence, but Master Yoda accepted my request not to have them forced to Coruscant.”

 

Anakin choked on nothing.

 

“Master _Yoda_?” he asked. Obi-Wan nodded.

 

“There are many things, here that we do not understand.”

 

Anakin scoffed.

 

“No kidding,” he said, “By the way, did these travelers come up with a solution to the confusion if we end up in the same place? I don’t think that I could call someone else by my own name with ease, especially if it’s actually myself.”

 

Obi-Wan cocked his head.

 

“I would like to be able to differentiate which of you is being reckless at a given time,” He said somewhat teasingly, hen he smiled, “Yes, your alternate has chosen the name Luke Starkiller, and Ahsoka’s alternate has chosen the name Ashla Laquwayne.”

 

Anakin nodded.

 

“Okay,”  he says, “Good. Can I call you back in the morning to meet them and tell Ahsoka?”

 

Obi-Wan nodded back.

 

“Yes,” he said, “That would be fine. I am sorry for waking you, Anakin, especially on your break, but I just… well, who could expect a thing like this?”

 

Anakin wondered what break Obi-Wan was talking about. He was fine with the extra work, but it’s not like he asked for it. He knew that Obi-Wan expected that amount of work, though, so he’d never told his Master his own sentiments. He’d seen where others his age were at, though, and he’d finished most of his studies by seventeen, was largely on a path to take his trials by the time he turned 20 even before the war (though he should have been knighted even before that, in his own personal opinion).

 

And, of course, he had a Padawan; a bright, wonderful girl who had wormed his way into his heart in only a couple of days. He was absolutely sure that they had assigned her to him to curb his “reckless” behavior (as if he didn’t always weigh the cost, _agonizing_ over how often his plans went south) and teach him a lesson about _attachments_. It sickened him to think of how the Jedi would use one of their own like that, but Alt least Padme and the Chancellor had been in agreement with him.

 

“But don’t worry, Anakin,” the Chancellor had said, “I’m sure that you’ll be a wonderful Master.”

 

And Anakin _was_ . He found sick satisfaction in every time Ahsoka excelled, where she excelled because of his teachings. Especially the last visit to Coruscant, where they’d returned for the testing required of all Padawans (which was, in his opinion, a horrible judge of skill). She’d passed every test, from math to dramatics to dueling. (Even with that ridiculous reverse grip.) And he’d applied for permission to teach her everything himself the _moment_ that she’d agreed to it.

 

And he was proud of her, too. He could see her excelling in every way a Jedi could, and he knew, he _knew_ , that she would be one of the the greatest Jedi in the Order one day, more than he ever could be, with the way the Jedi acted…

 

But that was another tangent. The point was, he didn’t ever have much of a break, exactly, so he didn’t mind the wake up.

 

“Anakin?” he heard Obi-Wan ask, “Coruscant to my Padawan, are you there?”

 

Anakin shook himself from his thoughts.

 

“Yeah,” he said, “Just got lost in thought. Don’t worry about the sleep thing, Obi-Wan, you know that leave is just another way of saying Temple duty.”

 

(It wasn’t, but Obi-Wan had his own issues, and talking about them was a sure way to get his Master to close up like a clam. (A fact that he was glad that the Chancellor reminded him of _before_ he had gone to tell his Master that he’d looked into Obi-Wan’s Padawan days. That would have been a _disaster_.)

 

Obi-Wan laughed.

 

“Yes,” he said, “That is how it feels. Goodnight, Anakin.”

 

Obi-Wan smiled, and Anakin smiled back; this conversation had been unbelievably freeing.

 

“Goodnight, Obi-Wan.”

 

And, with that, his holo flickered out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOOOOOKAY... I probably spend too much time trying to figure out a lot of strange things, so let's cover the list from this chapter.
> 
> -Anakin and Padme know that everyone knows, it's just a mutually ignored truth. (This is confirmed in a deleted scene from RotS) (On a slightly unrelated note, Alt!Ahsoka and Alt!Rex ironically didn't.)  
> -The Jedi education goes something like this:  
> -equivalent of 5-13: basic things like meditation and shielding, lightsaber combat, at least five languages other than basic, dramatic 1-3 (Color symbolism throughout the galaxy, how to let the Force turn everything you say into accidental foreshadowing, and how to make an entrance), history of the Jedi, history of the Galaxy, Basic/Language Arts, Math, Engineering, and piloting. (I'd like to point out that Anakin did ALL OF THIS in FIVE YEARS.)  
> -usually takes up the next 5-7 years or equivalent: Dramatics 4-8 (The proper uses of vagueness and the proper description of Force Visions, clothing symbolism throughout the Galaxy, the proper use of capes and cloaks, stating the obvious with style, and independent studies), two more languages, more core subject, one-on-one lightsaber training on more difficult forms with your Master, a lot of elective credits. There are tests every two months to see if you've learned the subject. Your Master can, if you both wish, home school you.  
> -Ever since Cannon!Ahsoka was adopted by the Force's granddaughter (because Cannon is the central timeline of this part of the multiverse and cannot be changed, Ashla and Luke ended up in a Galaxy just to the left), the Force has taken every version of her in as its own, and it runs all over histories making damn sure that all of its children are together and STUCK THERE.  
> -The Jedi overwork Kenobi-and-Skywalker. They always have. Qui-Gon being an asshole makes Obi-Wan think that this is okay, and Anakin knows better than to touch those wounds with a ten foot pole. He’s aware of it, of course, but... well, it is what it is. To Anakin, new ways that the Jedi treat him like crap have just... stopped being surprising. (And, sadly, this has nothing to do with Sidious.)


	4. Meetings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we finally get to the meeting each other bit! Yay!
> 
> Also, a lot of the formatting for this story has changed. It is now a series, and this first fic is more-or-less pure set-up. I find it easier to write when I have more room, and that little question mark made me mad...
> 
> Anyways, enjoy!

The holo lit, and Ahsoka gasped, sharply. It was one thing to be  _ told _ about the alternates, but  _ seeing  _ them…

 

Her Master’s alternate - _ Luke _ \- looked not much different than her Master, the same dark Jedi robes, black glove concealing a mechanical hand, and human-tan skin with brown-ish hair and grey-blue eyes, but at the same time, there were differences as well. Luke didn’t have any armor, for one, or a glove on his left hand, or a scar near his right eye, and his hair was much longer, pulled back into a ponytail behind him.

 

Her own alternate, Ashla, was an even larger contrast. Her alternate wore a tight, dark red dress that fell to mid-thigh over black tights with holes going down the outer sides and leather boots a similar shade of red to her dress. Her left arm was covered by a red sleeve, and her right was covered by a black glove, dark red gauntlets on top of both. On top of the dress she wore a black breastplate with silver trim, and there was a long scar across her face. She wondered what this much older, more experienced version of herself might know.

 

(She wonders what this older version might have  _ seen _ .)

 

And the same went for her Master’s alternate. Even at a glance, the differences in their stance and expression were jarring...

 

She was shaken from her thoughts as she noticed that the alternates were staring at her and Anakin just as intensely. She waved, awkwardly.

 

“Hi,” she said, and, like a magic spell, they finally started getting somewhere.

 

“Oh!” said her alternate, “Right, uh… hello? I’m Ashla, and this is my brother, Luke. I’m assuming that you know who we really are?”

 

Anakin nodded.

 

“Obi-Wan explained to me what you told him, and I passed on the pertinent information to Ahsoka,” he said, and, wait, the  _ pertinent information? _ She flashed annoyance and the impression of the words through the bond, wishing that their bond’s already unbelievable quick growth would move faster and actually let her yell at her Master over it. (She wondered what a completed proper bond sounded like…)

 

He sent back an apology that almost sounds like a word.

 

_ Sorry. _

 

“So you haven’t told your Padawan the whole truth?” Luke asked

 

Anakin glared.

 

“Would you?” he asked, and Luke looked away.

 

“No,” her Master’s alternate said, “But that was the problem.”

 

“How so?” Anakin asked in a voice that, to most, would sound inquisitive, but Ahsoka recognized the anger in his eyes, even if his Force Presence betrayed nothing. (It was a quirk of her Master that she doubted ever truly understanding, her Master’s ever-earnest face, and ever-blank Force Presence, although he did have their bond much more open than the rest of his mind.)

 

Luke and Ashla exchanged glances, and probably a conversation as well.

 

Then, they turned back to her and her Master.

 

“There’s no easy way to tell this story,” Luke said with a grim laugh that sounded more like a choke.

 

“Then start at the beginning,” Ahsoka found herself saying, “Wherever that is.”

 

Luke and Ashla exchanged glances once again. Then, Ashla sighs.

 

“Well,” she said, “For me, it started like this…”

 

The story was…  _ unbelievable _ . Her and  _ Rex _ , the  _ destruction _ of the Jedi, her  _ Padawan _ , the  _ Clone Wars  _ happening at a  _ different time _ , her  _ son _ , her… her…

 

Her Fall.

 

Her redemption.

 

It all just… it left her reeling.

 

She felt a hand on her shoulder, her Master’s grip a comfort that she used to center herself and focus on the story that her alternate was telling. It all just… it just seemed so impossible. She felt Anakin flash worry over the bond.

 

_ You okay? _ It asked. Ahsoka flashed a mental shrug back.

 

_ I guess. _

 

“...And then we were here,” her alternate said, and there really were so many gaping holes in Ashla’s story, but… well, even the said was too much. She didn’t even know what to say.

 

Of course, thank the  _ Force _ for her Master because he was much better at pushing worry to the side with abstract ideas than she was (when her, Senator Amidala, Master Kenobi or one of their men were in trouble, on the other hand, well…).

 

(His  _ daughter  _ was her  _ Padawan. _ In another world, his  _ daughter  _ was  _ her _ Padawan. That… well, she was  _ definitely _ teasing her Master about Senator Amidala when her her brain came back.)

 

He removed his hand from her shoulder, and said something in a language that she didn’t understand, but that the alternates obviously did, because they nodded in response.

 

(She missed that Ashla’s gaze had shifted to Luke for a second. She missed that only the two men born Anakin Skywalker understood the language. That’s a good thing.)

 

“You have to understand that this is difficult to believe,” he then said in Basic. His alternate nodded.

 

“We can understand that,” Luke said, “And you also probably have things to do, today, so we’ll be going.”

 

Anakin nodded, and she could feel his irritation through the bond. She still didn’t understand why her Master took so much extra work on when she  _ knew  _ that he hated it. Then again, much of Anakin Skywalker was still a complete mystery to her.

 

“Yes,” he said, “We do. This isn’t a very long leave, though, and we’ll be rendezvousing with Obi-Wan soon. We can speak more in person.”

 

The alternates hung up, then, and Ahsoka just kinda… sagged. She felt Anakin’s hand on her shoulder, and then he pulled her into a hug. They just… stood there, like that, for several minutes.

 

Then, they separated.

 

“You really okay, Snips?” Anakin asked. Ahsoka felt herself huff.

 

“No,” she said, “And you?”

 

Her Master laughed.

 

“I’m okay,” he said, before sighing and continuing, “Tell you what, Snips, why don’t you take the day off?”

 

Ahsoka felt herself smile, hesitantly.

 

“Okay,” she said, “I’m just gonna… go for a walk… I’ll see you later?”

 

She really needed to clear her head.

 

Anakin smiled.

 

“Okay, Ahsoka. See you… see you later.”

 

And, with that, she began to leave…

 

Then something dawned on her.

 

“Hey, Skyguy,” she said, “Doesn’t the story of how Leia became Ashla’s Padawan remind you of us?”

 

Her Master hummed.

 

“Yes,” he said distractedly, “Yes it did.”

 

Knowing that Anakin had gotten lost in thought, she decided that it was time to leave.

 

She really did need to clear her head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How on earth is Ahsoka so well adjusted when her Master is ANAKIN KRIFFING SKYWALKER? Like... go to Ahsoka for sanity and emotional support. She has her issues, of course, and this is... really something else, but, well...
> 
> Anakin, you'll see is just... so much worse.
> 
> And this is when he's still got Sidious' manipulations holding him together.
> 
> Also, and this is hilarious, but mentally projecting physical gestures is actually supposed to take LONGER than words. Anakin has successfully bent the laws of the universe.


	5. Falls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anakin's point of view... kind of.
> 
> this should be fun.

As soon as Ahsoka was gone, Anakin called the Alternates back. He knew that anger wasn’t the Jedi way, and he knew that, especially if his suspicions were right, he really should’ve been absolutely grateful to the Alternates, but…

 

“I Fall, don’t I?” he asked, but he already knew the answer, “I didn’t die, like you told Obi-Wan; I  _ Fell _ .”

 

He doesn’t know why, but that had sounded off to him from the beginning. He just…

 

He’d noticed the parallels, and his and Ashla’s stories of how they met their Padawan wasn’t the only one that he himself had seen. If… if he was right…

 

Well, he hoped he wasn’t right.

 

But then Ashla and Luke traded glances, and he  _ knew _ .

 

“Who?” he asked, even as he knew that the answer to his question swam just out of range of his mind, “Who is Sidious?”

 

He’s not sure whether to be angry or sad or  _ terrified _ , but he was definitely at least one of them. He… he…

 

“It’s Chancellor Palpatine,” his alternate said, “I’m… so sorry.”

 

No! The Chancellor was his  _ friend _ , he couldn’t  _ possibly  _ be… or could he? If… if he looked back objectively, then… 

 

How had he  _ missed _ it? How had he… how had he…

 

“ _ How _ ?”

 

He heard Ashla sigh.

 

“We… we just know what Ben told us,” she said, “And he didn’t tell us much. All he told us was that he left to capture Grievous and end the war and you were fine, and that he came back to a temple full of dead bodies and a security cam showing that you’d killed him. The rest… the rest we’re guessing went something like it did for us.”

 

No… no…  _ no! _

 

_ “I… I killed him; no matter how you slice it, it was  _ me  _ that killed him.” _

 

_ “And  _ Leia _ …” _

 

_ “...And, this time, Nidoa was the winner.” _

 

He… he’d  _ never _ …

 

Would he?

 

“[You know, now,]” he suddenly heard from his counterpart in a language that very few would know, “[And, trust me, that alone is enough to stop it.]”

 

Anakin looked up, at that.

 

“[How do you know?]” he asked. Luke just smiled, sadly.

 

“[Because I saw your former future,]” he said, “[Not… not long after… after Mom died, and we… well, you know. In it… in it we… we  _ burned _ .]”

 

Anakin scoffed.

 

“No less than I deserved,” he said in Basic, excluding Luke from the statement because he’d obviously not told Ashla yet of this vision, and it was really not his place to interfere on that front.

 

But Luke shaked his head.

 

“No,” his alternate said, “You see, there’s a forgotten technique that Sidious used to get to us, that Tyrannus used to get to Ashla… she knows more about it than me, so, Ashla, would you…”

 

Luke trailed off, turning to Ashla. She nodded.

 

“Right,” she said, “this is going to take a while. Our former or attempted Masters used a Sith technique called a Leach Bond, which allows a Sith to enter a Force-Sensitive’s mind, usually without the victim’s knowledge or consent. Once inside, the Leach Bond allows the Sith to manipulate the victims emotions and dreams, as well as allowing them to see the victims memory. Like any bond, you’re main shields don’t actually block inside of a Leach Bond, and, also like a normal bond, losing a Leach Bond is incredibly painful, at least for the victim…

 

“However, there is one difference. You see, there is no way to soften the blow, and… medium mental scarring is the long-term damage if you’re  _ lucky _ , have a  _ huge _ mental support network, and are  _ completely _ willing to have the Leach Bond removed…” Ashla sighs, “I’m sorry, Anakin. We can… like you said, we’ll meet face-to face soon enough. I  _ promise  _ you, though, Anakin…

 

“We will try and make this as painless as possible.”

 

Anakin didn’t know what to say, so… he just nodded.

 

Then, without even saying goodbye, he hung up.

 

He could Fall. He could Fall because the Chancellor was the Sith Lord. He could Fall because the Chancellor was the Sith Lord and he has unwittingly let the man into his  _ mind _ …

 

He didn’t know what to do. This was… he just…

 

He didn’t know what to do…

 

Luckily, that was when Artoo rolled worriedly in.

 

“[Anakin-Skywalker?]” Artoo beeped, “[Ahsoka-Snips looked upset, do you know what is wrong?]”

 

Anakin laughed, patting his droid friend on the head.

 

“Oh, Artoo,” he said, “You have no idea.”

 

And then he told the astromech the whole impossible mess.

 

“[Well maybe I can help,]” the droid beeps, “[It all just looks like coding to my system; I’ve noticed the bug for /years/.]”

 

Oh. Great. Anakin shot him a look.

 

“And you never _said_ anything?” he asked. Artoo swiveled his head around.

 

“[Would you have believed me?]” he asked. Anakin sighed.

 

“No,” he said, “I still don’t believe it.”

 

Artoo beeped, satisfied.

 

“[And there you have it. Can I maybe work on the bug now?]”

 

Anakin sighed again.

 

“No,” he said, “The last thing we need is to make this worse.”

 

"[Okay then.]"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Artoo is amazing, Anakin is a mess, and Alt!Anakin/Luke really needs to talk about his own issues.
> 
> An Anakin-Obi-Wan hybrid isn't talking about his issues. What a surprise.


	6. Clones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy!

Ahsoka didn’t entirely know how, but somehow her walk landed her right outside the 501st clone barracks. She wasn’t surprised, though. She hadn’t had many friends as a youngling, so most of her friends were the Vod’e, especially…

 

Especially Rex.

 

She still didn’t know what to think. Rex was… he was… he was  _ Rex _ . He was like Anakin, or Master Kenobi, or Senator Amidala, he’d just… fit into her life in the past few months as if he’d always been there… and yet…

 

And yet, she didn’t think that she would ever be able to look at him now without thinking of Ashla killing her husband, crazy from her fresh Fall to the Dark Side.

 

She was so lost in thought that she accidentally bumped into one of her men, it was the right blue, although she didn’t immediately recognize the face or the pattern on the armored-but-helmetless clone.

 

“Oh!” she said, “Sorry, I didn’t see you there… um, sorry, but I don’t think that I’ve met you before. Hi, I’m Ahsoka Tano, Commander of the 501st, although you should always listen to Captain Rex first. I mean, he’s been fighting since before the 501st was my Master’s.”

 

It was her standard greeting to new clones, but she had a lot on her mind, so it came out a lot more snarky and rushed than she’d meant. Still, the clone seemed unperturbed, and he smiled at her.

 

“It’s nice to meet you, Commander,” he said, “I’m CT-2… Fives. I’m Fives.”

 

Ahsoka smiled.

 

“New Name?” she asked. The man shook his head.

 

“No, sir,” he said, “I just hated my name so much that I started calling my squadron by their numbers, but… well… now there’s only one other person in on the joke, and it’s not as fun anymore.”

 

Oh…

 

“I’m sorry,” she found herself saying, “If I had known… I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

 

Fives shrugged.

 

“It’s alright,” he said, “You didn’t know.”

 

Ahsoka sighed.

 

“Still…”

 

“It’s  _ fine _ , Commander,” Fives interrupted, “I’ve got Echo… not every brother’s that lucky…

 

“So what are you doing over here?”

 

Ahsoka sighed again.

 

“I’m… not sure,” she said, “If… hypothetically speaking, if you found out that there was a reality where you’re married to one of your closest friends, but you also almost kill them, in that same reality… what do you do?”

 

Fives whistled, laughing awkwardly.

 

“I… I don’t know,” he said, “I guess… well, I’d make sure not to move past friendship in this one, unless the form of our relationship had little to do with their death, but… that’s a very strange hypothetical, Commander Tano.”

 

Ahsoka looked down.

 

“I know,” she said, “What if… what if you found out that you trained your mentor’s daughter. I mean… clones and Jedi… we can’t have families, can’t have children… but what if not even our mentor knew?”

 

Fives just shook his head.

 

“I really don’t know how to answer that one, sir,” he said, “I guess… I don’t know. I’m still new at this.”

 

Ahsoka found herself smirking.

 

“Well then,” she said, “Get ready. The 501st is one of the craziest legions in the GAR.”

 

Fives just laughed.

 

“Commander, remind me to tell you just how me and Echo joined.”

 

Ahsoka found herself laughing back.

 

“Maybe I will,” she said, smirking.

 

They continued to talk for a bit longer, before parting ways. As Ahsoka was leaving, she spun around.

 

“Hey,” she said, because this one piece of Ashla’s story still terrified her the most, “Fives… one more hypothetical before I go… what if there was something inside you and your brothers that could turn you into less than a droid? What if… what if you were one of the only people who knew about it?”

 

Fives sighed.

 

“I’d tell everyone I could trust,” he said, “And I’d hope that one of them believed me.”

 

(Somehow, the words echoed of prophecy and future.)

 

Ahsoka smiled.

 

“Thank you,” she said, “You’ve helped…  _ so _ much.”

 

The man smiled.

 

“Any time, sir.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Fives.


	7. The Other Side

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> now, Alt!Anakin's POV.

“Thank you for this, Master Kenobi,”  Anakin heard Ahsoka say as the seemingly-elder man began to leave the room. He turned around, surprised.

 

“Whatever for?” he asked.

 

“For believing us,” she said. (There was another meaning, there, that he could feel vaguely from over the bond, but he didn’t know what it was. Still, it didn’t worry him. He knew that there were things that he doubted he would ever tell her, never force her to bear for him, and there weren’t very many secrets between them, unlike before. She was entitled to her own mind, at the very least.)

 

Obi-Wan laughed, and Anakin recognized it instantly as the hysterical one that only ever came out to play when they were dealing with something unbelievable bizarre.

 

“Yes, well, I am very used to the unusual,” he said, “Now, I’ll be going.”

 

Anakin forced himself to smile.

 

“Yes,” he said, “I know myself enough to think that keeping secrets from my counterpart is _absolutely_ stupid.”

 

Obi-Wan smiled.

 

“I suppose so.”

 

Then he left.

 

Ahsoka turned to him.

 

“Are you ready?” she asked. He hid his whirling emotions where she couldn’t see them and nodded.

 

“When they’re ready,” he said, and, as if his words had summoned them, the blue light of the holo lit the tent.

 

Anakin’s eyes barely even glanced over his own alternate, but _Ahsoka’s…_

 

She looked so _young_ and _light_ and…

  
  


_“And… who is this?” Anakin asked, watching the tiny togruta trailing after his former Master. She glared at him._

 

 _“My_ name _is Ahsoka Tano,” she said, “And I’m his Padawan.”_

 

_Anakin smiled, laughing at her fiery passion and snippy attitude, praying to every deity that he knew for this girl to be able to keep it._

 

_“Well then, Snips,” he said, “It’s nice to meet you.”_

 

 _(But Obi-Wan had said that he wanted to get_ away _from other Jedi…_

 

_Did he just want to get away from Anakin?)_

  
  


_Putting the ship on autopilot for their trip back to Coruscant, Anakin made his way back to his former Sister Padawan, and, hopefully, soon-to-be Padawan. He sat down beside her._

 

_“You would never have made it as Obi-Wan’s Padawan,” he said, and she visibly drooped._

 

_“But you might make it as mine.”_

 

_She looked up at him, eyes filled with hope._

 

_“You mean…”_

 

_Anakin smiled._

 

_“Ahsoka Tano, would you do me the honor of being my Padawan Learner?”_

 

_Her hug was answer enough._

  
  


_“So?” Anakin prompted as Ahsoka and Leia made their way towards him. Ahsoka smirked._

 

_“Cinnamon Buns is cute enough,” she said. (The girl glowered at the nickname.)_

 

_“In fact, I think I wanna keep her, even if she does remind me of you.”_

 

_“Hey!”_

  
  


_“Padme, please, just…” Anakin trailed off, “Is… is Leia SkiLa our daughter?”_

 

_Padme looked away._

 

_“Yes.”_

  
  


_Anakin was only held back by Ben as he watched her leave._

 

_“Take care of our daughter,” Padme had said as she died in his arms…_

 

_That was three weeks ago._

  
  


_Scanning the crowd, Anakin found his eyes inexplicably drawn to a human boy in the back of the room and his companion, a girl a few years older than her partner. He ran a finger through his long grey hair, sighing and hoping that young FN-2187 (and, honestly, he was still pissed about that) didn’t find any more trouble._

  
  


Anakin was pulled from his thoughts as the younger Ahsoka waves, awkwardly. _Force_ , but she looked looked so _young_. (His own counterpart didn’t, as much as he should, and that… that was telling.)

 

“Hi,” the girl said.

 

Anakin choked on his words before he even opened his mouth, and he thanked the Force for Ahsoka.

 

“Oh!” his former Padawan exclaimed, “Right, uh… hello? I’m Ashla, and this is my brother, Luke. I’m assuming that you know who we really are?”

 

Her faux nonchalance finally grounded him.

 

(Brother. Such a complex word. He’d called her sister as he’d left her to die, after all… but she still saw him as family.)

 

He watched his younger counterpart nod.

 

“Obi-Wan explained to me what you told him, and I passed on the pertinent information to Ahsoka,” he said, and Anakin exchanged a look with Ahsoka.

 

 _“Like that ever went well,”_ she said over the bond. Anakin turned back to the holo.

 

“So you haven’t told your Padawan the whole truth?” he asked, not surprised when his younger self glared at him.

 

“Would you?” he asked.

 

Anakin looked away, sighing. He thought about all of the lies he’d told himself to get by during the Clone Wars, and he already knows the answer, the entire reason for everything that went wrong.

 

“No,” he said, “And that was the problem.”

 

“How so?” his alternate asked in a voice that Anakin _wished_ he didn’t recognize. His younger self might already know more than they had told, but he somehow doubted that the young man was able to grasp the full truth…

 

Still, he remembered being that age, and his knack for figuring all the right things out at all the wrong times had been, quite frankly, unbelievable.

 

He turned to Ahsoka.

 

 _“We have to tell them,”_ she said. Anakin sighed.

 

 _“I know,”_ he said, _“I just… don’t think that I can do it.”_

 

She smiled.

 

 _“Then I will,”_ she said, _“After all, you did promise to meet with Master Yoda alone.”_

 

Anakin smiled in return.

 

 _“If I could, I’d keep you as far away from these Jedi as I could,”_ he said, and he knew that she would read the thank you in his words, but he still said it.

 

_“Thank you, Ahsoka.”_

 

_“You’re welcome, Anakin.”_

 

Then, they turn back to their alternates.

 

“There’s no easy way to tell this story,” Anakin tried to warn.

 

“Then start at the beginning,” said the younger Ahsoka (she was still just a _child_ ), “Wherever that is.”

 

Anakin turned to his Ahsoka.

 

 _“Wherever that is for_ you _,”_ he said.

 

She smiled.

 

 _“Okay then,”_ she said, before returning her focus to the holo.

 

“Well,” she said, “For me, it started like this…”

 

Ahsoka told her story. It wasn’t anything that he hadn’t already know. He watched the shock on both the Alternates’ faces, the dawning realization on the younger version of his own.

 

 _I’m sorry,_ he wants to say to the boy, but he can’t.

 

When Ahsoka finally finished the story of their world, his Alternate’s glare almost feels like a physical thing.

 

“[I have chosen to call you once more when my learner is gone,]” he said, “[Be ready.]”

 

Ahsoka’s eyes flickered to him.

 

 _“He said he’s calling back later,”_ Anakin explained before she can ask, _“When your Alternate’s gone.”_

 

Ahsoka nodded at him mentally and his Alternate physically.

 

They talked more. They hung up.

 

Anakin sagged, and so did Ahsoka.

 

“They’re so… _young_ ,” Ahsoka said, “I… were we ever that young?”

 

Anakin laughed.

 

“Once,” he says, “But not at the same time.”

 

Ahsoka sighed.

 

“It’s just… I look at me - at _her_ \- and all I can see is Leia. I… How can you even _look_ at me when I tried to kill your _daughter_ ; when I _did_ kill you.”

 

Anakin… didn’t know what to say.

 

Luckily, that’s when his alternate called back, and he looked _angry_.

 

“I Fall, don’t I?” he asked, but it was obvious that he already knew with certainty, “I didn’t die, like you told Obi-Wan; I _Fell_.”

 

Anakin felt Ahsoka turn to him.

 

 _“There’s no way out of this, is there?”_ She asked.

 

 _“No,”_ Anakin said, _“There isn’t.”_

 

They’re silence, unsurprisingly, was taken as an answer.

 

“Who?” the Alternate asked, “Who is Sidious?”

 

Anakin sighed; there was no easy way to say this, either.

 

“It’s Chancellor Palpatine,” he said, “I’m sorry.”

 

And, although the conversation continued, that was the only thing that Anakin could think.

 

_I’m sorry._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every Anakin ever is a mess of a mess.


	8. A Conversation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy!

“ _How?_ ” Anakin’s counterpart asked desperately, and Ahsoka _hated_ that desperate, half-crazy looks in his eyes, hated its familiarity.

 

She sighed, knowing that this was hers to tell.

 

“We… we just know what Ben told us,” she said, “And he didn’t tell us much. All he told us was that he left to capture Grievous and end the war and you were fine, and that he came back to a temple full of dead bodies and a security cam showing that you’d been the one to kill them. The rest… the rest we’re guessing went something like it did for us.”

 

Her Master’s counterpart began to panic, and Ahsoka didn’t know what to do… luckily, Anakin stepped in. She didn’t know what they said, but then the younger Anakin Skywalker scoffed.

 

“No less than I deserved,” he said in Basic, but Anakin, of course, shook his head.

 

“No,” Anakin said, “You see, there’s a forgotten technique that Sidious used to get to us, that Tyrannus used to get to Ashla… she knows more about it than me, so, Ashla, would you…”

 

Anakin trailed off, turning to Ahsoka. She nodded. She did know more. Even if… well, obviously, she’d learned it as Nidoa. Apparently, Sith were also sadistic because most of Tyrannus’ teaching had been ironic.

 

She decided to break it down into the most clinical terms possible just to keep herself sane.

 

“Right,” she said, “this is going to take a while. Our former or attempted Masters used a Sith technique called a Leach Bond, which allows a Sith to enter a Force-Sensitive’s mind, usually without the victim’s knowledge or consent. Once inside, the Leach Bond allows the Sith to manipulate the victims emotions and dreams, as well as allowing them to see the victims memory. Like any bond, you’re main shields don’t actually block inside of a Leach Bond, and, also like a normal bond, losing a Leach Bond is incredibly painful, at least for the victim…

 

“However, there is one difference. You see, there is no way to soften the blow, and… medium mental scarring is the long-term damage if you’re _lucky_ , have a _huge_ mental support network, and are _completely_ willing to have the Leach Bond removed…” she sighed, “I’m sorry, Anakin. We can… like you said, we’ll meet face-to face soon enough. I _promise_ you, though, Anakin…

 

“We will try and make this as painless as possible.”

 

Anakin’s counterpart just nodded, jerkily, and the holo went dark.

 

Ahsoka sighed.

 

“That was hard,” she said, “That… Anakin, really, how can you forgive me?”

 

Anakin’s face twisted into something she couldn’t quite place.

 

“I made my mistakes, Ahsoka,” he said, “You got a chance to correct yours, and… well, I failed you. You’re mistakes, at the end of the day, are mine.”

 

Ahsoka sighed. Try as she might, her Master seemed incapable of understanding that her mistakes were her own in the end, and not his.

 

“No, they weren’t,” she said, and they _would_ have this conversation one day, but Anakin’s face made it very clear that that day was not today.

 

“Now you call Yoda,” she said, flashing warmth along their bond as way of goodbye, “I’m off to make friends with these Vod’e. They are my husband’s brothers, after all.”

 

It was almost light enough not to hurt.

 

Anakin smiled.

 

“Yeah,” he said, “You go do that.”

  
  


Meeting more of the Vod’e was not actually Ahsoka’s first order of business. First, she had some serious things to talk about with Obi-Wan. It was very, _very_ obvious that seeing Obi-Wan like this, when he actually looked like Obi-Wan instead of the altered features she remembered, was difficult for her Master, and she’d be damned if Obi-Wan accidentally did something to hurt her Master.

 

Especially because she didn’t know what that could be.

 

But Ahsoka was _not_ an idiot. If she was Leia and Anakin was herself…

 

Then Obi-Wan was Anakin. Maybe, from someone who was a little bit of both sides, she could learn what had really happened. All that was publicly known, even within the Jedi, was that Anakin and Obi-Wan had left to save the Duchess of Mandalore and come back with nothing but a dead Sith Lord.

 

And wasn’t that a theme.

 

“Ashla? What can I-”

 

“Duchess Satine of Mandalore,” Ahsoka said, voice as calm as she could make it, “When Luke was 22, your Counterpart and Luke went on an unsanctioned mission to Mandalore, and came back with a dead Sith, and news that Duchess Satine was dead and her planet had devolved into another civil war. For the next two years, your Counterpart refused to either train or allow the Knighting of my Master. Not until he defeated Sidious was he finally Knighted. After that, Luke left on a two month mission, returning to find _me_ , your Counterpart’s new Padawan, and a former Master who acted as if nothing was wrong. We spent the next eight months trying to find Sidious, and then, when we did, he killed your Counterpart, and left Luke with me, an eleven-year-old girl that _he_ **_didn’t_ ** **_want!_ ** ”

 

Ahsoka’s yelling, at this point, and it took her a moment to process the… _broken_ look on Obi-Wan’s face.

 

“I… Anakin… with… what?”

 

Ahsoka sighed. Okay, so keeping stuff in for years still lead to explosions. Good to know.

 

“I’m sorry,” she said, “I just… Luke won’t tell me anything. He closes up like the Holocron vault whenever I try to talk to him, and I just… the only thing he ever said was that your counterpart did nothing wrong, that he would have done worse, but… later… there was just too much to do, and not enough time to ask, but… your counterpart’s Force Ghost and your future self’s both disagree… and I don’t know why… do you?”

 

Obi-Wan’s face melted into the face of someone deep in thought. Their line had always been better when they had something to focus, even (especially) when it was destructive, even (especially) when it was self destructive…

 

But that was another thought.

 

(Funny, really, when Ben’s Padawan had seen the flaws of everyone except himself… apparently, knowing your issues wasn’t as sure a thing as knowing how to ignore them.)

 

“...Senator Amidala of Naboo?” Obi-Wan asked at last, looking very much like he wanted nothing more than to have it not be true, but… as she thought about it…

 

It made a terrible amount of sense. She remembered how hard it had been to get involved with Naboo. Ever since the reveal of Darth Sidious, Naboo had basically been publicly shamed and ignored by far too many, although Rex had apparently met Senator Amidala more than a few times prior to the war on his quest to earn him and his brothers their freedom. (And there she had been, leading the charge and doing nothing as most of his brothers still lost the small amount of freedom that they had…

 

She would never understand Anakin’s forgiveness, not with how little she deserved it, not after everything she’d done since first pledging herself to Tyrannus.)

 

Oh. Huh.

 

“Well,” Ahsoka found herself saying, “If that’s it, then Luke really did take it much better than your counterpart, especially compounded with my Padawan’s leaving. Leia was… she was…”

 

Not her secret to tell.

 

“I’m sorry for… whatever happened to your Padawan. I… I know it’s not the Jedi way, but… if I ever lost Anakin…”

 

Obi-Wan trailed off, but what he said was enough. Ahsoka sighed.

 

“I know,” she said with a bittersweet smile, “That’s how I know that you’re Ben.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly didn't expect this chapter to go this way... also, I'm 90% sure Ahsoka's eyes were gold when she was yelling.


	9. History

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy May The Fourth, I feel in the mood to update.
> 
> Please, enjoy this wonderful Star Wars pain on this wonderful Star Wars day.

“From another universe, you are?”

 

Anakin sighed.

 

“Yes, Master Yoda,” he said, “And… before I say another word, you must promise not to hold this story against my former Padawan or either of our counterparts.”

 

Yoda hmmed.

 

“Explain, you can, Master Skywalker?”

 

Anakin just found himself laughing darkly.

 

“I haven’t held that title, haven’t used that name, in over twenty years,” he said, “Now, do you promise?”

 

Yoda sighed.

 

“Promise, I do.”

 

And Anakin begins his story…

  
  


For Anakin, like Ahsoka, it began with Ben. He’d had no way of knowing, when he met Ben Starkiller, that Ben was his own Master from another world.

 

But, after everything went wrong on Mandalore, and Obi-Wan fell apart, Ben was there.

 

And, when Obi-Wan was dead, and he had a Sister Padawan to take care of and more mental trauma than he’d even known of at the time, Ben…

 

Had understood.

 

He hadn’t know why, at the time, but Ben had been his saving grace… maybe, if he’d listened to Ben’s wariness about Dooku, his hesitation when Anakin had adopted his Sister Padawan to be his Padawan…

 

Maybe things would have been different.

 

The Clone Wars begin. Anakin is 33 and Ahsoka is 28. A year later, practically the day Ahsoka is Knighted, they meet her new Padawan, Leia SkiLa.

 

He recognizes her instantly.

  
  


“She was my daughter,” Anakin explained, “My daughter with the only woman that I’ve ever loved… and I had not known of her existence beforehand.”

 

Yoda hmmed again.

 

“Senator Amidala, the mother was?”

 

Anakin sighed.

 

“Yes.”

  
  


The Clone Wars raged on, and Anakin forced himself to turn a blind eye to Ahsoka and Rex, and to hide it when they were getting too obvious.

 

He’d been the one to mute the footage of them saying their wedding vows, even.

 

Horrible and unexplainable things alike went by in the Clone Wars, and, then…

 

Then Sidious came back.

 

Then Sidious came back, and he killed _Padme_ , and Anakin had wanted nothing more than to tear the Sith apart with his bare hands.

  
  


“It was Padme who stopped me,” Anakin said, “She reminded me who I was… her last words were to take care of Leia…

 

“I failed.”

  
  


Leia was betrayed. Luke Lars, who should have been her friend, utterly betrayed her.

 

When she left the Council Chambers, without her braid…

 

Anakin hadn’t even gone after her. (Ben had stopped him.)

 

After all, by that point he’d already failed her.

 

And, then…

  
  


“I’m… so sorry, if this news is a surprise to you,” Anakin said, “And, trust me, I understand, but…

 

“Dooku is a Sith, and, in my universe, he was one of the worse.”

 

Yoda sighed.

 

“Know this, I do,” he said, “Understand, how do you?”

 

Anakin closed his eye for a moment, knowing that this part would be the most difficult…

  
  


Ben had been there, as well, when everything left of Anakin was lost. When he’d watched Ahsoka cut down younglings like they were nothing.

 

“I’m so sorry,” Ben had said, putting a hand on his shoulder as Anakin watched in stunned silence, as he dug even further through footage to watch as Ahsoka kneeled before Dooku, before Tyrannus, “But… Anakin, they must be defeated.”

 

_No!_

 

“Send me after Dooku,” Anakin had begged, not caring about the desperation in his voice, “Please, you don’t understand; I… I _cannot_ kill Ahsoka.”

 

And Ben had sighed.

 

(Anakin hadn’t known, yet, how much he understood.)

 

“Anakin,” he said, “Can you look me in the eye and tell me that you will fight Tyrannus like a Jedi.”

 

And Anakin… he couldn’t do it.

  
  


“I got Rex’s help,” Anakin explained, “If anyone knew where she was, if anyone could reason with her, it would be him… his death is as much my fault as it is Dooku’s.”

 

Yoda once again made his “wise” hmm noise.

 

“And your fault, How was it?”

  
  


They arrived on Mustafar. Ahsoka was too far gone. Paranoid and crazy, something animalistic in her eyes, he’d watched as she turned her considerable (although obviously not quite equal to his) Force power on her husband.

 

“Let him go, Ahsoka!”

 

Anakin could only watch as his Captain fell to the floor.

 

“You turned him against me!” Ahsoka had cried, the insanity clear in her voice.

 

She’d done that herself.

 

He fought Ahsoka with tears blurring his vision, and he left her to die with the echoes staining his heart.

 

“I hate you!” cried half of his still-alive heart, writhing on the bank of a river of lava.

 

“You were my sister, Ahsoka,” he’d cried, hating the echo, the pain he knew from a dream, “I loved you.”

 

It wasn’t much of a victory.

  
  


“I left her to die, and she re-emerged Darth Nidoa, more Machine than Togruta… and, to do that, Dooku used all of Rex’s life force to keep Nidoa alive.”

 

“But not the end, this is?”

 

Anakin sighed, feeling a smile tug on his lips as he thought of Finn.

 

“No, Master Yoda,” he said.

  
  


“She’s dead, isn’t she?”

 

Anakin had sighed.

 

“For her sake, I hope so.”

 

“I’m dying, aren’t I?”

 

“We can’t break the connection.”

 

Rex had sighed, then leaning back.

 

“On Tatooine,” he said, “There’s a brother I know who chose to run rather than fight for all of our freedom. He has a very small amount of cloning pods, and we got him the DNA not long ago to make another, very small batch. Of us. There’s more like this, but…”

 

“Rex…”

 

“FN-2187, I messed with his DNA, just a bit…” Rex sighed, “He’s ours, me and ‘Soka’s… they live on a moisture farm. Tell them I sent you, tell them about the kid’s mother. Have him get his mother’s last name, something to hold onto.”

 

His Padawan had a son…

 

He wouldn’t fail him like he’d failed everyone else, this he swore.

 

“I’ll go.”

 

Rex had smiled.

 

“Good,” he’d said, “And… if he’s Force Sensitive… don’t let your people die out, General, not if you have a chance.”

  
  


“He was, of course,” Anakin said, “Finn was Force Sensitive alright, but… the Lawquaynes… they didn’t let me train him.”

 

Anakin laughed.

 

“And, if you thought nine was too old” he said, “I didn’t get a chance to train Finn until he was nineteen.”

  
  


BB-8 was definitely a cross of Artoo and Threepio, which was probably why Anakin had believed that the little astromech had been created by them. When he found them in Mos Eisley, met Kylo and Rey…

 

Well, it made falling to Nidoa’s blade slightly easier.

 

After all, they were trained in the Force, by someone he trusted, even. They would help FN-2187 until he’d learned to manifest a physical body.

 

Then he could point Finn to Ben.

 

(By that point, of course, he had known the truth.)

 

(And, of course, he knew who the two really were, recognized Rey as his sister, though he did wonder why the Force had created another child…

 

Well, that was a lie. It was because of his failure and he knew it.

 

He recognized Kylo, too, saw features of Leia, Han, and even his own mother in the face of his grandson…

 

And wasn’t that a strange thought.

 

 _“I’m Rey,”_ the girl had said, _“and this is Ben Sol-”_

 

 _“Kylo SkiLa,”_ the boy had growled, _“It’s Kylo SkiLa, Rey.”_

 

But Anakin had heard.

 

Ben Solo.

 

Ben Solo, Kylo SkiLa.

 

He really wasn’t surprised.)

  
  


“There is a way to preserve your consciousness after death,” Anakin explained, “I learned it from Ben, who learned it from, well… you…”

 

Anakin shook his head.

 

“Ben was… actually, he was…”

 

With a deep breath Anakin finally said it.

 

“Ben is this universe’s Obi-Wan, from right after the end of your Clone Wars. He… with him, came your Anakin’s son, because…” Anakin trailed off, sighing. Yoda merely humed once again.

 

“Have Skywalker’s son, why would Obi-Wan?”

 

Anakin sighed.

 

“Because my counterpart Fell, and Padme was dead.”

 

Yoda hmmed again.

 

“A dangerous future, this is,” he said, and Anakin resisted the urge to growl at Yoda’s underlying meaning.

 

“A future that my counterpart has already been warned of,” he said, forcing himself to stay calm. So long removed, he’d forgotten how he’d been treated as a Padawan by the Council, by the Order as a whole, way back before his first defeat of Sidious (of three), “And a future that we have already taken and planned steps to avoid. You have already failed my counterpart in enough ways, and I hope with all of my heart that you don’t have to figure that out in either of the ways mine or Ben’s timeline’s did… besides, Falling isn’t as absolute as you think.”

 

This time, Yoda’s hmm had an obvious meaning.

  
  


Finn’s cries of pain felt like an open wound. He’d failed. All of this, and he’d _failed…_

 

He’d been so lost in his own self-hatred that it took him a second to realize what was happening.

 

But, when Dooku dies, he had felt it distinctly.

 

And he had felt the pull on Ahsoka’s already delicate life force (and, _yes_ , it really was _Ahsoka_ , really was his Padawan returned), had seen the smoke rising from her suit…

 

And, with Ben’s help, they’d preserved her, too.

  
  


“After that, we planned,” Anakin said, “Time is… different, in death, but it was only a small amount of time, even to the living…

 

“And, then, we came here… with Ben as our source of time, though, we knew that we could just as easily end up in this universe as in our own’s past, and, in the Force where all timelines merge, well… even that was fifty-fifty.”

 

Yoda sighed.

 

“Much to think about, you have given me,” he said, “And talk to the full Council, you and Tano both will, when return to Coruscant with Master Kenobi you do.”

 

Anakin sighed.

 

“I know, Master Yoda.”

 

And, with that, the final call ended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is probably the closest thing to a full story as I'll ever write for the Alt timeline...
> 
> Anyways. Anakin's eternal mess makes it hard to write in order. I just want to get to the kriffing fix-it part!
> 
> On the other hand, it WAS nice to use content from the earlier drafts of this story.


	10. In The Flesh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FiNALlY!!!!!
> 
> (Also, fair warning,this chapter is terrible.)

Ahsoka blinked. And stared. Finally, she tuned to her Master, lifting up on her tiptoes to reach his ear.

 

“Deja vu,” she whispered, “Luke really does feel like you.”

 

A smile twitched Anakin’s lips, but he didn’t respond. She was grateful, just a little bit. She didn’t know if she wanted to be equally comparable to a former Sith.

 

Master Obi-Wan coughed, awkwardly.

 

“Well,” he said, “Now that we’ve all met in person.”

 

And, with that, the tension broke.

 

Anakin sighed.

 

“Yeah,” he said, “We should… we should at least have the outline of a plan before we hit planetside.”

 

Ashla grimaced.

 

“Right,” the older women said, “A battle. On Kamino.”

 

Oh…

 

( _ “Ironically, we found him on Kamino,”  _ Ashla had said,  _ “That’s… that’s where I met Rex, and… by the time we left, Obi-Wan was dead. During the Clone Wars, however, we almost always managed to stop them before they made it to the planet.” _

 

_ “With two notable exceptions,”  _ Luke had muttered, but both Ahsoka and Anakin had heard, anyway. Ashla had sighed, a bitter look in her eyes.

 

_ “Yes,”  _ she’d said,  _ “Two very notable exceptions.” _ )

 

Honestly, Ahsoka definitely didn’t regret cutting her longer-than-Anakin-or-their-men-because-she’s-a-minor-and-a-recognized-sentient-being break short considering what she now knew had happened in the Alternates’ universe whenever Kamino was breached.

 

Master Obi-Wan, however, looked confused.

 

“I’m sorry?” he asked. Luke let out a weird half-laugh.

 

“Let’s just say that me and my sister never had very good experiences here when it came to battles.”

 

Ahsoka was about 95% sure that she’d properly interpreted her counterpart’s scoff as “if it weren’t for all of the crazy poodoo we’ve done, that’d be the understatement of the damn century.”

 

Which, okay, Ashla and Luke outclassed Anakin and Master Obi-Wan for crazy, so…

 

Well, yeah.

 

The thing was, of course, Ahsoka thought as they began to plan, they had to bring Rex and Cody in to plan.

 

She didn’t miss the heartbroken looks Ashla sent Rex’s way, nor the accompanying mourning trills, even if they were too high for human ears.

  
  
  


After the meeting, Ahsoka pulled her older counterpart aside.

 

“Can I tell Rex?” she asked. Ashla just… stared at her blankly.

 

“Tell… tell him?”

 

Oh. Great. Unsurprisingly, this was a touchy subject for her counterpart, and she’d just been all but flippant about it. Ahsoka sighed.

 

“I’m sorry, but I’m just not used to keeping secrets from Rex,” she said, “And it’s obviously hurting  _ you _ to see him judging by your trills.”

 

Ashla laughed at that.

 

“Yeah,” she said, “Sorry, I just… Let’s just say the Empire was very partial to uberhumanoids.”

 

Ashoka was… more than a bit shocked, but also not really surprised.

 

“Oh,” she said. Ashla sighed.

 

“I… yes, we can tell him,” Ashla said, “Rex of all people has a right to know, but… after the battle. Kamino never goes right, or, at least, not in my universe. We can… after the battle, before we go help Anakin… yours, not mine, even if he needs it.”

 

Ashoka scoffed.

 

“They both need ten years with a mind healer.”

 

A smile quirked the older woman’s lips.

 

“Yes,” she said, “But the real trick is getting them there.”

  
  
  


Finally, after the battle, Ahsoka managed to drag Rex away to talk to Ashla. He was talking to Fives and another member of the 501st.

 

“What were you telling them, anyways?” she asked. Rex smiled.

 

“They're getting ARC training,” he said, “The Rishi survivors.”

 

Fives was one of the Rishi survivors? Well, at least it explained why she hadn’t heard his name before. Also, funny that he hadn’t mentioned it before.

 

“That’s great,” she said, “But… Rex, there’s something you need to know, and it absolutely  _ cannot _ be leaked.”

 

“I… sure, Commander,” Rex said, “As long as it’s not illegal.”

 

“It’s… not  _ illegal _ , technically,” Ahsoka found herself saying, “But… well, it was illegal when everyone involved was alive, so…”

 

Ahsoka sighed.

 

“Just… follow me,” she said.

  
  
  


Ashla helped her tell the story, but Ahsoka, understandably, found herself doing most of the work. Ashla all but fled the room once the story was over, an understandable move.

 

Ahsoka wished she could do the same.

 

“Did you tell any of the other men about this?” Rex asked, and, well, that was an unexpected question. She shook her head.

 

“No,” she said, “Well… I discussed them in hypothetical, but this is crazy even for us.”

 

Rex shook his head.

 

“Kid, crazy doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

 

Ahsoka smiled.

 

“I know,” she said. “So… this won’t make things weird, will it? You’re my friend, Rexter, but you deserved to know about Ashla and Luke.”

 

Rex sighed.

 

“I don’t know, Commander,” he said. “But I’ll try.”

 

Ahsoka smiled.

 

“Good,” she said, “I couldn’t imagine loosing you.”

 

And, willing to risk it for some unknown reason, she darted in for a hug.

 

(She ignored the parallels to Ashla. Maybe if she ignored them hard enough, they’d disappear.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What in the Galaxy do you say to finding out your still-a-minor commanding officer marries and tries to kill you in another universe after destroying everythig that matters to you?
> 
> Good question.


	11. Bonds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that I haven’t updated in some time...
> 
> Why did I do this?

Naturally, of course, something else came up right after Kamino.

 

Of course.

 

Things had a habit of of speeding up into a consecutive set of disasters with months of calm between, and one mission and the arrival of the Alternates was not enough to fill the quota, apparently.

 

Naturally, the Chancellor had been kidnapped.

 

Sidious.

 

He had to rescue a Sith Lord who’d been manipulating him his entire life, and he can’t reveal that he knows the truth.

 

(If nothing else, Artoo had been able to help him find and put subtle shields inside of the… the Leach Bond.)

 

Well…

 

Well, that seemed about right.

 

“Well, Chancellor,” Anakin said as they flew away from about thirty explosions, a number that was honestly much lower than he’d expected, “Looks like you’re safe.”

 

Sidious smiled.

 

“Yes,” he said, “Thank you for rescuing me, may boy.”

 

(Anakin frowned internally as he noticed the lack of recognition of anyone but himself. Sidious seemed to do that… quite often, as he looked back in retrospect.)

 

“But,” Sidious continued, luckily missing Anakin’s thoughts, “I must ask you, Anakin, who were the two sentiments with you? I don’t believe that I recognize them, and the Jedi are very picky on who they allow to use a lightsaber.”

 

(Sidious was as subtle as a brick to the face, and Anakin hated how much he’d missed. Very few understood the symbolism of lightsabers outside of the Jedi and the Sith, and certainly no regular civilian would be able to tell that white and orange sabers weren’t Jedi colors.

 

Many people still thought of _Dooku_ as a Jedi, after all, and his lightsaber was so obviously _not_ natural that Anakin didn’t even think he could describe it.)

 

Anakin shrugged.

 

“You’re guess is as good as mine, Chancellor,” he said. “Their names are Luke Starkiller and Ashla Lawquayne, and, apparently, they’ll be working with myself, Obi-Wan, and the men for the foreseeable future.”

 

“And the Jedi have told you nothing more?”

 

Anakin shook his head.

 

(The Jedi knew less than he himself did.)

 

“No, Chancellor.”

 

Sidious smiled, placing a hand on Anakin’s shoulder.

 

“Thank you, my boy,” he said.

 

Anakin nodded, and left as quickly as he could.

  
  


“[Are you sure you want us to do this, right now?]” Ashla asked him in the ancient Nubian dialect Palpatine had taught him, which… _oh_. Well, he’d been stupid. Anakin nodded.

 

“[Yes,]” he said. “[I can’t risk them like that.]”

 

Ashla nods.

 

“[Okay,]” she says, “[Luke and I promise not to look at more than we have to, we understand how hard this is.]”

 

Luke laughed, and nodded.

 

“[Yes, we’ll try not to air too much dirty laundry to Ben or Ahsoka.]” he says. Obi-Wan cocked his head.

 

“Pardon me,” he says, “But I don’t believe that I’ve heard that language before.”

 

Anakin sighed, and Luke and Ashla exchanged glances.

 

“Just tell him,” he says. “[Ahsoka’s not here, and Obi-Wan… well, I’ve kept enough secrets from him.]”

 

“[So you figured it out?]” Ashla asked. Anakin scoffed.

 

“[I’m no idiot,]” he said, “Just tell him.”

 

Ashla sighed.

 

“It’s Nubian in oral origin,” she explained. “And the written form is somewhere in between Huttese and Seiri, and… it’s the Sith language.”

 

Obi-Wan stumbled back.

 

“How…”

 

Luke just shook his head.

 

“Not yet,” he said, “Myself and Ashla need to go into this with clear heads, and I don’t think either of us could do that if we have to explain.”

 

Obi-Wan sighed.

 

“Very well,” he said, “But don’t doubt that I want an explanation for how three Jedi know the forgotten spoken Sith language.”

 

Anakin just sighed.

 

_“Don’t worry, Master,”_ he said. _“They’ve told me everything I’ve asked for… but I don’t think you’ll like it.”_

 

_“I still want to know how you know as well, Anakin,”_ Obi-Wan said.

 

Anakin laughed.

 

_“No,”_ he said. _“You don’t.”_

 

“But, before we do anything else,” Ashla said, interrupting their mental chat, “I think we should warn you that there can be physical affects.”

 

“Force exhaustion,” Luke explained. “Yes, even for us.”

 

Anakin nodded.

 

“Anything else?” he asked. “Force exhaustion isn’t usually deadly.”

 

“[We’ll need you to drop any Night Shields,]” Ashla said. “[This may not be deadly, but we really need to do this in one blow, and there’s a high likelihood you’ll lose consciousness.]”

 

Yup. Definitely glad they weren’t telling Obi-Wan.

 

(Definitely not looking forwards to explanations.)

 

“Okay,” he said, “I’m ready.”

  
  


Losing a Leach Bond, Anakin found, was more painful than was possible to imagine. It wasn’t impossible to resist, though. He’d been tortured before, even mentally. (Once. By some crazy Darkside he can’t remember the name of.)

 

There was nothing, however, that could compare to this.

 

He didn’t even know when he passed out (faintly remembered a scream), just that he awoke in Obi-Wan’s arms, and he’d never felt so weak before… or so Light. (All his life? Since he came to the Jedi? Since he met Sidious? He doesn’t know.) Slowly and carefully, he pushed himself into a sitting position next to his Master.

 

“...How long?” he asked.

 

“Ten hours, since we started, nine hours, since you lost consciousness, and about an hour since we finished,” Ashla said. Surprisingly, Anakin could clearly see a glare on Obi-Wan’s face, directed at the Alternates.

 

“You still didn’t tell me this would happen,” he said to them. “Or even explain the full situation until after you were done.”

 

Anakin sighed. Honestly, his lineage could be beyond ridiculous. He has read the files on Yoda’s rebellious Padawan days, after all.

 

And Dooku’s.

 

To be fair, he’d only done it out of surprise about Obi-Wan’s past and the grayed “watch out for Falls” mark on his file.

 

And boredom.

 

He _had_ been fifteen.

 

Jolting himself back to the present, Anakin sent a pulse of warmth to his Master, about all he could dreg up right now with the Force.

 

“I knew, Obi-Wan,” he said. “But I… I don’t want you to know. Didn’t want you to think of me as…”

 

He trailed off. As Darth Vader, not that Obi-Wan knew that name (to his knowledge. He has no idea what Luke and Ashla had told him). Obi-Wan just shook his head, placing a hand on Anakin’s shoulder.

 

“Anakin…” he said, “You know how much that I care for you. I… oh my Padawan…”

 

Anakin let a smile fill his face.

 

“Don’t worry, Obi-Wan,” he said, “I’m okay. I just…”

 

How to describe this new feeling…

 

“You’re free?” Luke asked. Anakin nodded.

 

“Exactly.”

 

He could feel it already, the burns in his mind that Ashla and Luke hadn’t managed to avoid creating… but, for now, they were small.

 

And he was free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My poor babies.
> 
> Only one chapter left.
> 
> Honestly, this whole "writing in perfect order" thing was exhausting. I'm not doing it again, any time soon.
> 
> Expect jumpy in the future.
> 
> *edit*
> 
> My epilogue died. This is the last chapter and I hope you enjoyed.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr [@flaim-ita](https://flaim-ita.tumblr.com/)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Hope Comes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15511845) by [Jen425](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425)




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